souk

souk Review

Jerusalem's main market is the souk in the Old City, spread over a warren of intersecting streets. This is where much of Arab Jerusalem shops. It's awash with color and redolent with the clashing scents of exotic spices. Village women's baskets of produce vie for attention with hanging shanks of lamb, fresh fish on ice, and fresh-baked delicacies. Food stalls are interspersed with purveyors of fabrics and shoes. The baubles and trinkets of the tourist trade often seem secondary, except along the well-trodden paths of the Via Dolorosa, David Street, and Christian Quarter Road.

Haggling with merchants in the Arab market—a time-honored tradition—is not always the good-natured experience it once was. It is not always easy to identify the honest merchants among the many whose jewelry, antiquities, leather, and embroidery are often not what they claim. Unless you know what you want, know how much it's really worth, and enjoy the sometimes aggressive give-and-take of bargaining (but stay polite), you're better off just enjoying the local color (stick to the main streets, and watch your wallet or purse) and doing your shopping in the more modern and familiar New City. Note that women are advised to dress discreetly.